Thursday, December 18, 2008

At the inauguration of the Miniator production line on Saturday, Saipa CEO Mehrdad Bazrpash said the company plans to manufacture an annual 200,000 units of the car.Miniator averages 7 liters of gasoline per 100 kilometers and puts out 80 horsepower with a displacement of 1500cc, ISNA reported.Bazrpash said the automaker is already seeking to establish a foothold for the car in markets in the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia and Latin America.According to Saipa, the retail price of the car would not exceed US $10,000 when it enters the markets in the next year.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Kourosh Ziabari - Nowadays, you hear the name of Iran for the most catastrophic reasons in the global media headlines. Nuclear weapons, terrorism, mass destruction, violation of human rights, abduction of freedom activists etc. Such hostile approach for the coverage of Iran news which has been taking by the corporation media since long times ago would easily sequence to an international pessimism toward the people of Iran, the culture of Iran and the history of Iran. That's why, Iran is somehow interpreted as the most misrepresented, misunderstood country in the world that is being distorted by image despite of its richness of civilization.

Speaking to an American scholar of Persian Culture who has devoted almost 15 years of his lifetime to studying the furthest angels and brinks of Persian culture and Iranian lifestyle is worth reading at least once for it gives a clarified and impartial viewpoint of Iran, what the outgoing President of US calls the "Axis of Evil".

James Russell is a world-distinguished figure, a well-known name for those interested in Persian culture, Persian civilization and Iranian studies. He is a Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University and the a former Associate Professor of Ancient Iranian studies at Columbia University while teaching at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem priorly.

At the time being, Professor James Russell of the Harvard University is writing a book on a medieval Armenian collection of tales whose source he believes to be the Buddhist Lotus Sutra, an important scripture written by and for the Silk Road peoples, most of whom spoke Iranian languages.

I conducted an interview with Prof. James Russell with the aim of learning more about the viewpoints of an American university professor about Iran, the misrepresented and misinterpreted country that you can not discover its truths and realities, unless you travel and sense it face-to-face.

In the brief debate, we talked about various topics such as the life of Persian poet Mowlana, the customs and rituals of Iranian people, the history of Persian Gulf and the richness of Persian literature.

I invite you to come with us to walk you through the corridors of 7500 years history of Greater Persia; certainly you would learn more things, knowing not before!

Born in 1991, Kourosh Ziabari is an Iranian freelance journalist and writer, the author of book "7+1", which is collection of his interviews with 7 contemporary Iranian authors. He is a contributing writer for websites and magazines of Netherlands, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, South Korea, Belgium, Germany, UK and the US. A number of Kourosh's articles and blog posts have been translated into Spanish, German and French languages; moreover he appeared twice in BBC World service programs and PBS Media Shift as well.

He is Persian and lives in Rasht, in Northern Iran. Kourosh was selected as the world's youngest journalist by the Association of Young Journalists and Writers in 2005, He is acquainted with five world languages and is also a web and graphic designer for Persian web portals and magazines.

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

FPIP - Kourosh Ziabari: John McCain and his "Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran" lost the presidential election. George W. Bush and his view of Iran as an "evil" nation will soon leave the White House. Barack Obama could open a new chapter in U.S.-Iranian relations by visiting Iran. He wouldn't be alone.

Iran receives more than a million tourists annually, and that number has grown substantially over the last three years. Most of the tourists arriving in Iran are journalists, students, academics, and athletes who come to participate in a special event or for leisure purposes. They come from the Muslim world, from Europe, from the Asia-Pacific region, and even from the Americas. Despite the last three years of rising tensions between Tehran and Washington, a number of famous Americans visited Iran. These included Hollywood actor Sean Penn, scholar Richard Nelson Frye, veteran film director Richard Leacock, the 2005 Nobel Prize winner in economics Thomas Schelling, and 1993 Nobel Prize winner in physics Joseph Hooton Taylor.

Many visitors expect to arrive in a dry desert country with rural people, everyone wearing black, and all the women covering their faces. Tourists are often startled to find thriving cities with crowded streets, where music plays and people laugh. They are surprised to find a country where so many have access to the Internet.

In this picture, Japanese tourists pose with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Persepolis, the ancient Persian city that dates back to the 6th century BC. Perhaps Persepolis would be a fitting place for President Obama to meet with the Iranian leadership during his first 100 days…

Kouroush Ziabari is an Iranian freelance journalist, the author of the book "7+1," and a contributing writer for several magazines around the world. He is also a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.

The concerts will be held from March 10 to 17, 2009 in Denmark, Germany and Sweden. The group will also hold workshops to introduce traditional Persian music to university students in the Danish cities of Copenhagen and Arhus.

Composer, researcher and a master player of Tar and Setar, Keyvan Saket has held numerous national and international concerts.

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Iranian filmmaker and journalist Marjan Riahi is slated to serve on the jury of Grand Off - European Off Film Awards in Warsaw, Poland.Riahi will be joined by directors and artists from Poland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Hungary, the UK, Spain, Croatia, Luxembourg, France, Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Russia and Ukraine.

Marjan Riahi's first directing experience was a documentary called Eternal Mothers, which was screened in numerous Iranian and International Festivals. It received the 2002 Best Short Documentary Award of Dubai Short Film Festival.She has also judged at the 2007 Kabul International Documentary and Short Film Festival in Afghanistan.

This year's European Off Film Awards has also nominated Iran's Angels Die in Soil directed by Babak Amini, Feminine, Masculine directed by Sadaf Foroughi, and Shadows of Silence directed by Shahriar Pourseidian for the Best Non-European Film award.The Grand Off - European Off Film Awards are granted in the categories of directing, scriptwriting, editing, cinematography, best actor, best actress, best feature film, best documentary and best animation.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Kourosh Ziabari - Atlantic Free Press: In our outlandish and bizarre era where the mogul warmongers are bombarding the innocent children and women, corporation media are planning to overthrow the popular and independent governments in developing countries and the excess of financial crisis is harming thousands of people worldwide, the most valuable thing that one can do is to find ways for upraising mutual understandings, friendships, cognations and stable peaces.

Finding shortcuts to escape from the brawls and tumults in the quarrelsome and chaotic world of 21st century is not actually an easy-to-do job, but would be an effective idea to highlight similarities and emphasize amiabilities so as to get rid of hostilities which are surrounding us increasingly.

Iran and South Korea are the notable examples of two close continental allies which are both among the developing countries with flourishing economies and bright prospect of joining to the throng of developed countries.

Giving prominence to such cordial relations that have never been flawed despite of the treacherous strives of inimical forces behind the scenes, could be exemplary and inspiring for the other nations that have already engaged in close relationships with other neighbors or friends; relations which are constructive for the two sides, moreover non-threatening for the other nations.

Historically, Islamic Republic of Iran has been a major ally of Eastern Asian countries. It still is. And it has particularly boosted its economic, scientific and cultural ties with South Korea, as an influential regional power in the past years.

Iran, as a giant Persian Gulf energy producer, counts on Korea as a main destination for its oil and gas exports. The two sides have also shown an eagerness to participate in each other's industrial projects.

The current figure of bilateral transactions between Iran and Korea stands on $9 Billion, which has been anticipated to exceed $10 billion within the next months.

Furthermore, cultural relations between two countries are increasingly being expanded as a source of mutual interest, as the recently held "Glory of Persia" exhibition in Seoul reveals.

Iran has also signed several contracts with Korean TV stations to translate and broadcast the popular Korean TV series "Jewel in the Palace," the most predominant of popular foreign TV series in Iran. Lee Young Ae has said she was honored to have such multitudinous fans in Iran.

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: "It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America."

Among the noisy hollers of jubilant, excited swarms who had been gathered in Chicago to celebrate the official announcement of President-elect Barack Obama's victory in competition with the old-hand Sen. John McCain during a 21 month campaign for the 2008 US Presidential elections, yells of "Yes, we can" by the excited, hopeful Americans raised the expectations for a defining – at least – four years epoch of repose and tranquility under a moderate, pacifist 47-year old who is said to be going to alleviate the flames of hostility and animosity blazed by the warmonger ex-President Bush worldwide.

Almost everyday during the past 8 years while the republican George Walker Bush was holding office in the White House, you could probably hear up-to-date, breaking news regarding a raid by the US Air Forces or military troops on diverse parts of the world, one after another; so far the sacrificed victims are Rwanda, Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq who experienced the catastrophic situation of their territorial integrity being violated, while the others such as Belarus, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Venezuela, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran underwent the worst types of soft-strikes: financial embargo and psychological war.

Perhaps, that was an inseparable division of Bush's foreign policy to cut the mutual ties off with the entire world – except the Western Europe – to meet the ambitions of Israel and accomplish an ideological mission to expand the global Zionism; however the mission – which is not clearly determined that whether is accomplished yet or not - cost a lot for the people of White House and the nation of America, as well.

In the other words, US government dwindled or incised its relations with bunches of countries rashly, under the incumbency of President Bush; countries which he assumed as tiny, terrorist, unimportant or hostile. Meanwhile, he boosted the connections with a confined number of countries including UK, France, Germany and Israel as major allies to continue preserving the tyrannical stance of USA toward the rest of world.

The inimical posture toward the under-developing countries that consist a number of about two third of world population, allowed the White House to hold up any military or financial measure against them whenever its became "necessary", specially about those countries with the majority of Muslims, and that caused intrinsic outrages and hatred against US among the masses of people, beside of incarnating the country as a despotic tyranny in the age of freedom and democracy.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Kourosh Ziabari - World Cup Blog: Since there are various phases of struggling with initial difficulties, promoting yourself as a newbie is not often an easy-to-do job.

First of all, you should prove that your appearance or presence would not disturb the stable situation or dwindle the settled tranquility, then you should gain the trust of your audiences so as to make them believe your thoughts and finally you should interact with them to see whether you were successful in communicating your messages or not.

Athough I am not a newbie to writing or journalism, I feel today, I am rookie for WCB where I have been a reader for in the past 2 years, but am going to experience writing in it for the very first time which is both interesting and sensitive.

I am not known for my sport pieces or commentaries, even though I write them occasionally, but I am a regular soccer fan, and you can test my football memory by asking about the catastrophe of Mark Vivian Foe’s death to the famous freekick goal which Ronaldinho put in the box of David Seaman during a 2002 World Cup quarter-finals match with England.

However, that’s my duty to thank my dear compatriot and old-hand football writer Afshin Afshar who accepted warmly to share with me and also Daryl Grove who helped me brotherly to find my way through World Cup Blog.

Here, where I will be writing once or twice a week, you can find a new perspective toward the Iranian football and incidents around the “green rectangle” of Persia.

While I know that writing about the football of a country, which I believe is the most misrepresented country in the world, is not a simple business, but I assure you that Iran World Cup blog will become a source of learning more about the concealed culture and public lifestyle of this ancient land’s people through the means of football! If you don’t believe, follow me in the next sessions!

Thanks to the almighty God, some of my articles, online activities and blog posts have attained international popularity and feedback in non-English media during the past months and been translated in various languages such as Italian, French, Deutsch, Spanish and some non-Latin dialects.

Intrinsically, it would be a great favor for any journalist and blogger, and in a general term, for any content-producer (including painters, filmmakers, musicians, academicians etc) to find his works attracted the global community, and I feel in such a way, too; thus I collected some of the translations of my works in non-English media which are listed below. I will keep them in my history and always refer to them as the first sparks of my global appearance!

MediaLeft - Kourosh Ziabari: "It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America."

Among the noisy hollers of jubilant, excited swarms who had been gathered in Chicago to celebrate the official announcement of President-elect Barack Obama's victory in competition with the old-hand Sen. John McCain during a 21 month campaign for the 2008 US Presidential elections, yells of "Yes, we can" by the excited, hopeful Americans raised the expectations for a defining – at least – four years epoch of repose and tranquility under a moderate, pacifist 47-year old who is said to be going to alleviate the flames of hostility and animosity blazed by the warmonger ex-President Bush worldwide.

Almost everyday during the past 8 years while the republican George Walker Bush was holding office in the White House, you could probably hear up-to-date, breaking news regarding a raid by the US Air Forces or military troops on diverse parts of the world, one after another; so far the sacrificed victims are Rwanda, Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq who experienced the catastrophic situation of their territorial integrity being violated, while the others such as Belarus, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Venezuela, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran underwent the worst types of soft-strikes: financial embargo and psychological war.

Perhaps, that was an inseparable division of Bush's foreign policy to cut the mutual ties off with the entire world – except the Western Europe – to meet the ambitions of Israel and accomplish an ideological mission to expand the global Judaism; however the mission – which is not clearly determined that whether is accomplished yet or not - cost a lot for the people of the White House and the nation of America, as well.

In other words, the US government dwindled or incised its relations with bunches of countries rashly, under the incumbency of President Bush; countries which he assumed as tiny, terrorist, unimportant or hostile. Meanwhile, he boosted the connections with a confined number of countries including UK, France, Germany and Israel as major allies to continue preserving the tyrannical stance of USA toward the rest of world.

Quoting from MediaLeft: Born in 1991, Kourosh Ziabari is a freelance journalist and writer, the author of book "7+1", a collection of his interviews with 7 contemporary Iranian authors and a contributing writer for magazines of Netherlands, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, South Korea, Belgium, Germany, UK and the US. He is Persian and lives in Rasht, in Northern Iran.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

... So how does the election of Barack Obama look to people outside the United States — particularly, how does it look to a young Iranian living in Iran? In this Guest Voice post, Iranian freelance writer and blogger Kourosh Ziabari looks at how the U.S was perceived in some parts of the world under President George Bush and what Obama’s election could mean...

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Counter Currents - Kourosh Ziabari: According to UN regulations for the standardization of geographical places names, any attempt to alter or distort a historical registered name is denied and branded as "unlawful'. Every city, province, island, river, strait, mountain and gulf enjoys a special, exclusive name and each name narrates a story about the origins and history of its owner.

For example, the phrase "Indian ocean" tells us that the southeastern region of Asia was under the domination of Indian empire historically, or the name "Caspian sea" describes that the main inhabitants of Southern Russian and northern Iran region were the ancient tribe of "Caspi" historically. This shows that the originality and unity of geographical names must be kept and dispersion is not acceptable in this matter.

Let's give a simple example. My name is Kourosh, but what happens if each of my friends decide to call me by his desired name? Maybe I would get 20 names if I had 20 friends, and clearly it is neither logical nor practical. In an upper level, imagine that we assign two or three names to every country and request of the media and people to call these destinations by all of the assigned names, or that the different states designate their arbitrary name to the neighboring countries. In this case, we would have a world with 200 countries and thousands of names for them. Would be the world livable in such circumstances?

However, I propounded all of the above topics to mention about a critical issue which is offending the international community these days, the project of Persian Gulf's name distortion. According to the legal and historical evidences, the body water which separates Iran from the Arabian Peninsula is known as Persian Gulf since the ancient eras until now, lacking any synonym or alternative name. This name has been used in historical maps, articles and epilogues for more than 1 million times, a most prominent of them belonging to the Greek Herodotus.

The Greek historian in his book -History of Herodotus, 440 B.C- has repeatedly mentioned the term "Sinus Persicus" which is a Latin form of "Persian Gulf", meanwhile he emphasized that the "Arabian Gulf" is a historical name which stands for the today's "Red Sea". Additionally, we find the term "Persian Gulf" referring to the body water separating the plateau of Persia from the Arabian Peninsula in the books and maps of numerous Arabian voyagers and scholars including Ibn-e-Battuta.

Regarding the history of Persian Empire which dates back to 5000 B.C and known as one of the first civilizations in the world's history, Persian Gulf, Caspian Sea and the Gulf of Iran which is currently referred as the "Gulf of Oman" were all under the sovereignty of Persia, a great monarchy which was consisted of various states such as Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Emirates, Kuwait, Syria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Armenia and Parts of India.

All of these states separated from Iran during the past millennium and shaped their own, independent governments, the latest of them was UAE which toke independence from Iran in the year 1971.However, I am not looking to bother you by substantiating the historical and scientific legitimacy of Persian Gulf's name.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

A high-ranking delegation of some six American university deans, headed by the chancellor of "Association of American Universities" held talks with Minister of Science, Research and Technology Mohammad-Mehdi Zahedi here on Sunday.

The visit of American delegation held upon the invitation of dean of Sharif University of Technology Saeed Sohrab-Pour.The visit aims to prepare the ground for exchange of university students and professors between the two countries.The American academics will visit some other Iranian universities during their stay in Iran.The group will also visit the historical city of Isfahan and Isfahan University of Technology.The American deans include Prof. Robert M. Berdahl as the president of AAU, Prof. David J.Skorton as the president of Cornell University, Prof. David W. Leebron as the president of Rice University, Prof. J. Bernard Machen as the president of University of Florida, Prof. C.D. Mote as the president of University of Maryland, Prof. Larry Vanderhoef as the president of California University and Prof. Jared L. Cohon as the president of Carnegie Mellon University.

Three feature-length Iranian films are slated to be screened at the weeklong Kolkata International Forum of New Cinema 2008 in India.

Eternal Children by Pouran Derakhshandeh, The Green Fire by Mohammad Reza Aslani and The Persian Carpet directed by 15 Iranian filmmakers will be screened in the event's Panorama of world Cinema section.

Eternal Children (2007) has been screened at numerous international events including the first Iranian film week in Varna, Bulgaria and the 6th Third Eye Asian Film Festival in India.

The Persian Carpet is directed by a group of leading Iranian filmmakers including Abbas Kiarostami, Rakhshan Bani-Etemad, Bahman Farmanara and Dariush Mehrjui who have depicted the issue from their point of view.

The film has been screened at the 18th annual Celebration of Iranian Cinema held in the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Sweden's 2008 Uppsala International Film Festival and many other international events.

Held on the sidelines of the 2008 Kolkata Film Festival, the International Forum of New Cinema kicked off on Nov. 14 and will run until Nov. 20, 2008.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The sole encyclopedia on Persian Gulf will go online in April 2009, providing a chance for researchers to use it in their research works.

Work on the electronic encyclopedia began by Abu Reyhan Birouni Research Center, affiliated to the Center for Islamic Encyclopedia, last year.

Commenting on the project, head of the center, Kianoush Kiani said that the electronic version of the encyclopedia will officially go online on Persian Gulf Day (April 29).

The encyclopedia has been designed in two sections of general information and entries. Four volumes have been scheduled to cover extensive articles on Persian Gulf while another four volumes are to feature entries, 1,500 of which have so far been identified, he said, the Islamic republic news agency reported.The eight-volume encyclopedia will take four years to complete, Kiani said.

TEHRAN Times, Nov. 15 (MNA) – Australia is interested in expanding economic and industrial ties with Iran, Australia’s new ambassador to Tehran, Marc Innes-Brown, said on Saturday in the historical city of Isfahan.

Eslamian said that Isfahan is the second industrial hub of Iran.Iran’s stone industry and many of the country’s major industrial plants and foodstuff production units are based in Isfahan, he added.Eslamian also urged officials to make efforts to expand bilateral economic cooperation

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Atlantic Free Press - Kourosh Ziabari: Among the noisy hollers of jubilant, excited swarms who had been gathered in Chicago to celebrate the official announcement of President-elect Barack Obama's victory in competition with the old-hand Sen. John McCain during a 21 month campaign for the 2008 US Presidential elections, yells of "Yes, we can" by the excited, hopeful Americans raised the expectations for a defining – at least – four years epoch of repose and tranquility under a moderate, pacifist 47-year old who is said to be going to alleviate the flames of hostility and animosity blazed by the warmonger ex-President Bush worldwide.

Almost everyday during the past 8 years while the republican George Walker Bush was holding office in the White House, you could probably hear up-to-date, breaking news regarding a raid by the US Air Forces or military troops on diverse parts of the world, one after another; so far the sacrificed victims are Rwanda, Somalia, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq who experienced the catastrophic situation of their territorial integrity being violated, while the others such as Belarus, Uzbekistan, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Venezuela, China, Russia, North Korea and Iran underwent the worst types of soft-strikes: financial embargo and psychological war.

Perhaps, that was an inseparable division of Bush's foreign policy to cut the mutual ties off with the entire world – except the Western Europe – to meet the ambitions of Israel and accomplish an ideological mission to expand the global Judaism; however the mission – which is not clearly determined that whether is accomplished yet or not - cost a lot for the people of White House and the nation of America, as well.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Dear Cinema - Kourosh Ziabari:The second edition of Iran’s International Documentary Films Festival “Cinema Verite” came to a close on Thursday. The festival which has the distinction of being the most prominent film festival in the Persian Gulf region also announced the winners of the competition section during the closing night. Indian filmmaker Nishtha Jain’s film “Lakshmi and Me” emerged as the only winner from Asia.

“Cinema Verite” of 2008 hosted bunches of producers, journalists, documentaries and cinema experts from 84 countries worldwide, while the most of participants belonged to India, UK, France, Poland, Finland, Netherlands, Denmark, the United States, Japan, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland and Brazil.

The auditoriums of International Vahdat Hall, Palestine Theater and Freedom Theater screened near to 200 documentaries from international filmmakers who gathered in Iran to expose their talent, capability and skills of displaying the “truth” and “reality” through the means of visual techniques and cinematic knowledge..

Nishtha Jain won the honorary diploma, Verity statue and a 2,000€ award for the best short documentary.

Cinema vertie festivalPrior to this, the Mumbai-based independent director Jain has won several international awards for her much acclaimed documentary “Lakshmi and me” at various festivals such as the 5th Golden Apricot Film Festival of Armenia, Bucharest 2008 International Film Festival, Planete Doc Film Festival of Warsaw and the 2008 International Women’s Film Festival of Dortmund.

The impressive film, narrates the story of an almost poor and miserable woman who works as a servant for her employer who is also another woman. Both of them have a relative friendly communication with together. But what makes the film so effective and eye-catching is the chain of unrelated and challenging accidents that happen for the “Lakshmi”.

The other winner of international section was the polish director Marcin Koszalka who has been awarded with the honorary diploma, verity statue and 5000€ for the best lengthy documentary.

His delicate film “Existence” drew an eye-catching and in-depth outline of Jerzy Nowak’s real life. Nowak is a distinguished 84 year old Polish actor who decided that after death, his body should be used for the benefit of science. This precious documentary follows Mr. Nowak as he makes this most personal and final decision and reveals his own dilemmas and thoughts about death.

Majidi and Mehrjuii are scheduled to be the special guests of the 15th edition of the Boston Festival of Films from Iran, which will be running from November 7 to 30, the museum reported on its website.

Majidi will attend the event to receive the ILEX Foundation Award for Excellence in Iranian Cinema as his latest film “The Song of the Sparrows” will be screened on opening night.

Mehrjuii will be present to receive the first ILEX Award for Lifetime Achievement. His “The Santur Player”, which was banned in Iran, is also on the festival’s screening schedule.

A number of documentaries, dramas, and comedies by both veteran and new directors will be screened during the gala.

In addition, the festival has also organized a short film program to screen “Children of Shell” by Abbas Amini, “In City Lights” and “In Those Hands” by Ida Panahandeh, “Little Bit Higher” by Mehdi Jaravi, “Mirror and Water” by Bijan Zamanpira, and “Old Man and the Rail” and “The Victim” by Panahbarkhoda Rezaii.

The festival is sponsored by ILEX, a Boston-based non-governmental, academic foundation, which promotes the study of humanistic traditions, culture, art, cinema, and literature of the Mediterranean and Near East.

The organizers believe that the Boston Festival of Films from Iran has become one of the most extensive showcases of contemporary Iranian cinema in the United States.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

A delegation from six US and Canadian Mennonite universities visited Iran from Oct. 4 to 10 to explore opportunities for academic collaboration with Iranian universities.

The delegation was warmly welcomed by Iranian educators and students and encouraged to pursue further interactions with Iranian universities, according to delegation members. Proposals include professor and student exchanges, academic conferences, joint research projects and video-conferencing between Iranian and North American students.

The delegation was made up of Loren Swartzendruber, president of Eastern Mennonite University; Sally Weaver Sommer, vice president and dean of academic affairs at Bluffton University; Jim Pankratz, academic dean at Conrad Grebel University College; Anita K. Stalter, vice president and dean for academic affairs at Goshen College; Ted Koontz, professor of ethics and peace studies at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary; and Harry Huebner, professor of philosophy and theology at Canadian Mennonite University, a report by the MCC said.

Iranian university officials expressed particular interest in academic exchanges related to peace, justice, conflict and religion, according to several members of the delegation.Sommer said she hopes that such exchanges can contribute to peace between Iran and the US despite high tensions between governments. She noted that many Americans would be afraid to travel to Iran.

"There's nothing scary about going there," she said.The delegation's visit is part of MCC's ongoing work to build relationships between people in Iran and the West.

MCC began working in Iran in 1990 by helping to provide relief after an earthquake killed more than 30,000 people in the northwest of the country. For the past 10 years, MCC has co-sponsored a student exchange program with Iran's Imam Khomeini Education and Research Institute. Through this exchange, two Iranian scholars have done doctoral work at the Toronto School of Theology, and four American couples have studied Farsi (Persian) and Islam in Qom.

The delegation visited a total of 12 universities and research centers and laid preliminary plans for an academic conference with Mennonite and Shiite Muslim scholars in the city of Qom, Iran, in May 2009.

Huebner said that Iranian educators are particularly interested in fostering future interactions between Iranian and North American students. Part of the rationale is to combat harmful stereotypes between Iran and the West."They repeatedly emphasized that our students are the next generation, and 'Do we want to perpetuate stereotypes or break them down?,'" Huebner said.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Iran has claimed a maiden AFC U-16 Championship title with a 2-1 win over 10-man South Korea at Pakhtakor Stadium in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

On an overcast day in the Uzbek capital on Saturday, Korea goalkeeper Kim Tae-sung - making just his second appearance of the tournament in place of Kwon Tae-ahn - saved Mehrdad Yeganeh's 25-yard bullet after five minutes.

Iran were nearly handed the breakthrough after 29 minutes as a long forward ball caught the Korean defense flat-footed but, after nipping in behind the backline, Kaveh Rezaei could only lift the ball over a stranded Kim Tae-sung and the crossbar.

Korea were reduced to 10 men 13 minutes before the break as Kim Dae-kwang, who was making his first start of the tournament, collected a second yellow card from Uzbekistan referee Valentin Kovalenko after picking up the first after just nine minutes.

And Iran capitalized on their advantage six minutes later as Mohsen Talebaat picked up the ball just inside the Korea half, flicked it past Lee Dong-nych, before surging into the area and slotting it under an advancing Kim Tae-sung.

Korea coach Lee Kwang-jong introduced Son Heung-min shortly after the break and the move almost paid off as Lee Jong-ho met his cross a minute before the hour mark but watched as his glancing header drifted past the post with Iran goalkeeper Iman Sadeghi caught flatfooted.

But with Korea pressing for an equaliser, Iran doubled their lead three minutes later as Rezaei ran at Korea captain Rim Chang-woo, skipped past the center-back's challenge before calmly finishing past a badly positioned Kim Tae-sung.

Iran continued their dominance in the closing stages, but in the last minute before time Lee Chang fired under Iman Sadeghi from close range.

The win ensured Iran progressed through the entire competition from the qualifying stage with a clean record after winning all 10 games, scoring 31 goals and conceding just three.

Renowned Austrian composer and pianist Roland Batik is scheduled to hold a piano recital concert in the Iranian capital of Tehran.Batik will perform pieces by classical composers, Mozart and Beethoven, along with a number of his own musical compositions.

The Austrian pianist, composer and teacher, Roland Batik is known for his brilliant combination of classical elements with jazz. He has also experienced various chamber music formations both as a pianist and a composer.Batik received the 'Wiener Flotenuhr' award for his complete recordings of the piano sonata of Mozart as the best interpretation of the year in 1991.

He was also awarded the culture prize of Lower Austria Province for extraordinary achievements as a musician and composer in November 2000.Roland Batik's piano recital concert will be held on Oct. 27 and 28, 2008 in Tehran's Vahdat Hall. Adapted from: Press TV

Sunday, October 19, 2008

PoliGazette - Kourosh Ziabari: Most of us have esteemed religions and creeds; believing in a certain faith, prophet(s) and a holy book, praying to a unique God and struggling to behave in a way that please Him, or so we believe.

To followers of monotheistic religions including Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Islam, there is just one God supposed to be the owner and creator of the whole universe and its components. While believers might assign various names to this creator and possessor of everything, which is natural due to the cultural and linguistic differences, it does not make any difference in the nature, unity and almighty nature of the lord.

The thing is that we believe a single and unparalleled God has created us, assisted us and guided us through a firm path in his unity. Such a God who is able to design the construction of man’s mind with its endless capabilities, design the arrayed rotation of four seasons without any disorder and design millions of flower species with special smell for each of them would undoubtedly have no collaborator and needs no help to incarnate his privileges and powers; otherwise he would not be called as the “creator”.

We don’t attribute each of the natural resources and powers to a special god and don’t believe in a group of gods who co-work with each other to manage and maintain the incidents of the world. Such a belief is potentially unacceptable and rejected since all of us know well that the creation is not a nigh-patrol job to be shifted by reserve guardians.

Creation means making something appeared from “nothing”; endowing existence to something that was not existing before. By the exact means of the word, creation should be interpreted as an exclusive business which does not come from humankind.

Have you ever thought about the industrial or scientific inventions? What the innovators do? Do they create something new? Of course not! They just use previously existing materials, fix and mix them together, handle them in a different way and conclude a new production. I’ve to confess that their process of working is complicated too much; needing creativity and originality which most of ordinary people lack, but their work is not to produce things by using their own-made “materials” and “tools”.

Such a clear and realistic way of thinking is owed to the progressive doctrine of monotheistic religions that lead the mankind toward advanced scopes of thought. So you see, supposing numerous gods for the world and stating that rains, snows, days, nights, love, hate, childhood and adolescence are dominated by each of them indicates the shortsightedness and illiteracy of some of our ancestors in ancient civilizations.

But all of the illiteracy is not limited to those who believe in several gods. On the other hand, we have the irreligious who don’t assume any creator for the enormous cosmos which they are living in. They think that the world came into existence accidentally without any former plans or schedules and its inhabitants also “tumbled” on the earth suddenly rather than being “created”.

However, I am not going to criticize the viewpoints of non-believers, since, believing in nothing is somehow a type of belief itself.

In this brief debate, I have also nothing to bring to the table about with agonists, atheists, seculars or the others who believe that religion does not play any role in the daily life. Of course, they have not any concerns about “the other world”, not afraid of punishment as a consequence of their sins and unlawful acts, never minding about a superior observer who witnesses all of their deeds, rarely preventing themselves from “wining and dining”.

Sometimes, you may begrudge to them who live and commit liberally, having no restrictions, feeling responsible to nobody but to their desires and wishes, not bothering themselves to take part in prayers and rituals, apparently enjoying life.

This does not mean that a religious believer is deprived of material joys, but he tries to live a in a way pleasing to his God, meaning with little regard for superficial entertainment. He is confident that his exercises and mortifications would be granted luxuriously someday and somewhere.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Kourosh Ziabari - Newcastle University: TELLISI (Teaching English Language and Literature In the Society of Iran) is the name referring to an international linguistics congress which was held at the State University of Guilan, located in the Caspian Sea bordering city of Rasht, from October 8th, for two days.

170 English language scholars and researchers from US, UK, Romania, South Africa and Egypt gathered in Iran and presented their lectures, posters and addresses in TELLISI congress up to October 10th in the auditoriums of humanities faculty of Guilan University.

The congress which is said to be the first one of its type in the northern Iran had three honorary guests from US, Russia and UK, all of them among the world-renowned linguistics scholars and professors.

Prof. Vivian J. Cook from the Newcastle University of England who is the editor of Oxford-affiliated journal of "Writing System Research"was the most distinguished guest attending the congress and that was why he attracted lots of students, academicians and reporters who came to Rasht from all over Iran to meet him.

Cook is the author of several books on various branches of linguistics, and his last book named "Second Language Learning and Language Teaching" was published on 2008 by the Hodder Educational publications.

I found a short interlude between his lectures and talked to him on various subjects, topics of his presentation, his viewpoint of Iran and his personal observations in Rasht.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

The Iranian football team maintained a 100% record with a decisive 3-0 victory against the Persian Gulf tiny rival UAE in the AFC U-16 semi-finals on Wednesday.The first half ended in a draw in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, but Bahram Dabbagh in the 60th minute, Akbar Imani in the 76th minute and Kaveh Rezaei in the 90th minute sealed a valuable victory for Iran.

Amir Abdollah and Mohammad Khalil from Emirates were sent off by the Vietnamese referee Ming in the final minutes.

Iran has already defeated Bahrain, Uzbekistan, Singapore and Syria. The team will face the winner of South Korea and Japan on October 18 in the AFC U-16 final game.

Prior to this, Iran had secured its berth for the 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup as one of the 4 top Asian teams who will be participating in the tournaments.

Nigeria will be hosting the FIFA U-17 World Cup next year.

The Iranian squad was absent in the three past editions of FIFA U-17 World Cup in Finland, Peru and South Korea due to the failure of qualification, while its latest and only apperance in FIFA U-17 World Cup returns to 2001 where the matches were held in Trinidad and Tobago.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Although Yahoo removed Iran from the drop-down list, Iranians were still using Yahoo services, according to Kourosh Ziabari, an Iranian journalist and blogger who wrote about the issue for the citizen journalism site OhMyNews.

"[Iranians are using] Yahoo services, downloading new versions of Messenger, using the different web site parts but not finding the name of their country in the sign-up list," Ziabari wrote. "In fact, if an Iranian user wanted to sign up for a new account in Yahoo mail, he should have selected the name of the other countries, and then he would proceed."

Ziabari and another blogger and student, Mohammad Tavakoli, organized an online campaign to protest the move by Yahoo to remove their country from the drop-down menu, which they considered "a mental war instead of a restriction of services" and an affront to their country's "15,000 years of history." The campaign consisted, ironically, of a Google bomb, a site whose metadata keywords don't actually describe the content and drive searchers looking for one site elsewhere -- in Ziabari's case to Hello Yahoo Mail. The site still shows up on the first page of Google search results for yahoo mail

After I queried another Iranian blogger, Hamid Tehrani, who edits the Iran section for Global Voices, I found out that Chrome is blocked, along with other Google downloads, in Iran. But it's relatively easy for Iranian users to get around this obstacle. Ziabari told me in an email (from his Gmail account) that he is still able to access Google services by using a proxy.

"Currently, we are using all of the search engines and portals without any restriction, using the latest versions of Google Earth, Chrome, GTalk and any other downloadable product," he said. In addition to helping users get around government filtering and censorship, proxies and anonymizers can also fool Google's servers into thinking that the downloads were going elsewhere rather than to users in Iran. Continues here

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Freezerbox magazine - Kourosh Ziabari: Is Israel really capable of altercating with Iran? Referring to 2008 CIA factbook, Iran is placed 8th in the world ranking of total number of active troops passing Egypt, France, United Kingdom, Italy and Germany while Israel stands 31 states. According to the same source, Iran again stands 8th in the world ranking of size of armed forces. while Israel takes the 30th berth. Israeli officials also announced that they are aware about the 600 Iranian missiles pointed to Tel Aviv since 2005 to hit back any strike.

The new generation of Iranian Shahab-3 which is a domestic-produced ballistic missile equipped to cover a distance of 2000 Kilometers, approximately from Tehran to Berlin. Also the Iranian commander of air forces has pledged early that any Israeli strike on Iran would be responded with 10,000 Shahab-3 missiles shooting Tel Aviv.

But with regard to the military strength of Iran, can anyone bring an example that the Persian governments have ever occupied any country or attacked any land in the world? Iran has a civilization of 7500 years but nobody can find a example of Iranians invading other countries during the history.

It seems that Israel and US politicians and diplomats are educated enough to know that any possible attack on Iran would lead to a new world war with irretrievable consequences that just leave repentance and regret.

Iran is a sovereign and historical country that has a right for using peaceful nuclear energy as well as other modern technologies to solve its electricity shortage problem and improving its scientific abilities, but motivating and insulting the Iranian nation in media by aggressing black propaganda, calling them "terrorists" and setting the mental wars will undoubtedly lead to some unsatisfactory results for the world.

Not saying as an Iranian journalist, but as a regular observer of international developments, the global community has no way but to accept Iranians are peaceful and harmless nation that answer to the enemies decisively, having the right to employ the new technologies like all of their neighboring countries, so it would be more appropriate to deal with them without discrimination and bias.

Iran is the most impressive team in the 2008 FIFA Futsal World Cup according to 56 percent of voters in an online poll by the world's football governing body.

Argentina trails in second place with only 16 percent of votes in the FIFA poll, while Russia is third with 12 percent. Paraguay and Ukraine have 10 and 6 percent of votes respectively.

The impressive Iranian squad held two-time world champion Spain to a 3-3 draw in its first match of the tournament, and easily swept into the second round after victories over Libya, Uruguay and the Czech Republic.

On Saturday, the Asian champions lost their first match of the world cup to Brazil, 1-0. Brazil is unbeaten in the tournament to date, and scored a stunning 49 goals in its first four matches.

“We did exactly what our coach asked us to do when they were attacking. We tried to mark nice and tight in central areas to prevent them getting shots in on goal,” said Iran's captain Vahid Shamsaee.

“Did the pressure get to us? Our plan was to focus on the game and not the crowd. We hope we get to take Brazil on again.”

Brazil's player Betao said, “I think that we came up against a good national side whose hopes for this tournament are still alive.”

“Their keeper's display had a crucial impact on the result, not to mention the way they defended well across the board. Even when they were 1-0 down they still sat back in their area! But the most important thing is the win, not putting on a show.”

Iran will face Ukraine on Sunday and Italy on Tuesday in the national squad's final two matches of the second round, which is held 'round robin' like the preliminaries.

The figures show poll results until October 12, 0630 GMT. Results may change as the poll continues. Adapted from: Press TV

Friday, October 10, 2008

On Saturday evening, the curtain will fall on the third edition of “Mûsîqât”, the festival of traditional and neo-traditional music. The last artist who will perform on the Mûsîqât stage is the renowned Iranian singer and musician Shahram Nazeri, also known as the ‘Persian nightingale’.

A fitting closing evening for a successful festival whose eclecticism has attracted a great number of music lovers.

Shahram Nazeri who was born in 1949 in Kermanshah in the Iranian Kurdistan, is initiated very young by his father to the memorization and recitation of the poems of the great Sufi poet Jalaleddine Rumi. Soon, the young boy will become one of the great masters of Iranian classical singing.

His strong, warm and moving voice which has toured the world, will no doubt mark its stamp on his Tunisian audience, as it sings the texts of Persia’s mystic poets such as Rumi, Hafez, and Saadi, and man’s quest for the divine, as well as his inextinguishable thirst for love and light.

In the 2008 Musiqat festival of Tunisia, Shahram Nazeri of Iran who is also entitled as the "Persian Pavarotti" competed with artists from Afghanistan, Turkey, Morocco, China, Romania, Brazil, Mali, Spain, Italy, France, Agrentina and the host country Tunisia.

Master Shahram Nazeri is globally recognized for his dazzling pieces of song inspired by the poems of Mowlana Jallaludin, the

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Iran booked their place in the second round of the FIFA Futsal World Cup with a 3-2 victory over Czech Republic at the Gimnasio Nilson Nelsen.

The Czechs needed a victory to ensure their place in the last eight, but they faced an in-form Iran side who fully deserved their win. Prompted by the lively Vahid Shamsaee and Mostafa Tayyebi, the west Asians dominated play from the outset, forcing opposing goalkeeper Tomas Meller into some early action.

The deadlock was broken after 17 minutes when Ali Hassanzadeh turned the ball in from a corner kick. Czech Republic's best chance of the half came with seconds of the first half remaining when Robert Mares brought a stunning reflex save from Mostafa Nazari.

Somewhat against the run of play, the Europeans found themselves level in the 28th minute when Lukas Resetar supplied Jan Janovsky who made no mistake. They could have found themselves ahead a minute later, but Martin Dlouhy fluffed his chance with only Nazari to beat.

Arguably the man of the match, Shamsaee put Iran ahead with nine minutes to play, but parity was restored just seconds later when Dlouhy made amends for his earlier miss.

The Czechs needed a win to advance to the next stage and so substituted their goalkeeper to pile more pressure on the Iranians. However, the plan backfired when Hassanzadeh fired the ball into the empty net to sent his team through and his opponents out.

Prior to this, Iran national futsal team defeated Uruguay, Libya and draw with Spain to clinch its qualification by a memorable victory against the Czech republic.

The Asian giant remained undefeated until the last day of group matches beside of the world champions Spain and is slated to face Brazil and see whether it's possible to reserve one of the top 4 berths so as to seal its final progression.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Kourosh Ziabari - Politics in Color : Nowadays, Iran and its people are being threatened widely for a near,possible attack by the Israeli forces if Tehran continue pursuing itsnuclear program. Additionally, the amount of media pressure against thecountry is increasing simultaneous to the rhetoric of Israeli officials,backed by US statesmen.

Some western governments acclaim that they would support Israel for apossible bombardment of Iranian nuclear facilities because of thethreatening nature of these installations.White House people and the major EU members state frequently that they arelooking for ways to help the process of global peace, stability and promotethe international security by emptying the world from nuclear threats.

In the meantime, they refuse to pursue the lawsuit brought by the Iraniangovernment against Israel for depositing 170 nuclear warheads.This figure is approved by the former US president, Ronald Reagan too.According to an unwritten law, none of the global mainstream media areallowed or willing to investigate about the mass destruction weapons ofIsrael and its exact figures which have been issued by the Federation ofAmerican Scientists(http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/israel/nuke) and republished by many otherindependent sources.

However, while the Israeli regime itself is under the international pressureabout the details of its nuclear armories and the occupation of Palestinianlands on the other hand, it is lobbying actively to make some troubles forIran.

It is not significantly clear that what are the roles and position of Israelin the nuclear case of Iran. Israel is neither the member of UNSC nor itsigned the NPT and is reckoned as the world 3 countries that didn't join thetreaty.

Kawthar Muhaib - Mideast Youth: I recently interviewed Kourosh Ziabari, a young yet accomplished Iranian journalist who felt compelled to take action against the vilification of his country and people. His approach was to introduce the world to Iran’s rich culture, history and contributions to the worlds of art, science, etc. - aspects of Iran that many are unaware of.

Many of Mideast Youth’s readers (myself included) would have objections to some of his responses, but they remain valid opinions held by him and many of his Iranian counterparts. Mideast Youth was created with the purpose of fostering a fierce - but respectful dialogue - among the diverse groups in the region, and it’s only through challenging each other’s perspectives that we can learn from each other.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Iranian filmmaker Manijeh Hekmat's Three Women is slated to be screened at the 2008 San Luis Cine International Festival in Argentina.

Hekmat's second feature-length production will participate in the event's competition section.Three women recounts the life story of three women from three different generations of Iranian women; a daughter, her mother and her grandmother.

The 94-minute film has been screened at numerous international film festivals including the 2008 Brisbane International Film Festival (BIFF) in Australia.

The second edition of San Luis Cine International Festival will be held from Oct. 31 to Nov. 8, 2008.

About Me

Born in 1991, freelance journalist and writer. the author of book "7+1" and a contributing writer for magazines of Netherlands, Canada, Italy, Hong Kong, Bulgaria, South Korea, Belgium, Germany, UK and the US.